Physics gets more personal: new video abstracts in New Journal of Physics

4 February 2011

New Journal of Physics (NJP) has today announced the launch of video abstracts as a new integrated content stream that will give all authors the opportunity to go beyond the constraints of the written article to personally present the importance of their work to the journal’s global audience.

Early contributions include videos from the groups of David Wineland, National Institute of Standards and Technology and J Ignacio Cirac, Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics, talking about scalable ion traps for quantum information processing, and quantum superposition of living organisms. Researchers from more than 25 countries are represented by the videos abstracts that are published today.

One of the first contributors, Neil Wilson of the University of Warwick, UK, said of the service “We are very excited to have the opportunity to feature a video abstract alongside our NJP article. Embracing the possibilities of online media in this way allows us to present our work as we see it, and helps focus interested readers on what we believe the key points to be. We hope that being able to put faces to names, and visualize some of the research in action, will add a human touch and so help the scientific community to grow closer”. His video on the structure and topography of free-standing chemically modified graphene can be viewed at http://iopscience.iop.org/1367-2630/12/12/125010/ .

Launched in 1998, NJP is an open-access journal co-owned by the Institute of Physics and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft and published by IOP Publishing. The introduction of this new video service reflects the journal’s founding objectives to embrace the opportunities afforded by the online medium towards making physics research as accessible and available as possible worldwide.

“This is a first for a physics journal and is another example of how New Journal of Physics is looking to push boundaries to provide new online services for our authors and readers” said Professor Eberhard Bodenschatz, Editor-in-Chief of the journal. “Authors can convey their research in new and novel ways to provide increased visibility for them, and an enriched user experience for our wide readership.”

Video abstracts in NJP are permanently free-to-view and, in line with the journal’s open-access publishing model, include functionality for sharing through social media channels towards maximizing community engagement, interaction and visibility.

The new service is being launched using Brightcove video sharing technology. Brightcove is the current market leader in this arena. IOP Publishing has made this investment as part of the company’s ongoing commitment to developing and offering technological solutions to improve global scientific communication.